Saturday, April 17, 2010

A case of diet gone haywire

I thought I'd be able to get back to my normal healthy diet after CNY. However, all this birthday birthday stuffs, just seem to give us reasons to feast, feast and feast. Of course, our trip to Bangkok last week didn't help much either.

Fortunately I've done more than my fair share of exercise this week. Instead of the 3 treadmill & 2 yoga sessions, I did 4 treadmills and 1 yoga. We were in JB on Monday and by the time I got home, I was bushed, so no yoga that day. I did it this morning instead, before anything else got in the way. Tmrw will be rest day.

To do yoga, we first need to be in the right frame of mind ie. relaxed state, both in mind and in body. I didn't do any last week as I was in Bangkok, but I was at the hotel's gym, maximizing it's facilities. Somehow, for this entire week, my body muscles felt tight and tense, just thinking of starting yoga again. Hence this morning, to coax my body and mind into taking the 1st step, I started it off easy by doing the lotus pose (ref to abv pix) while I breathe deeply, to provide oxygen to my entire body, to loosen up the muscles and to warm them up. In between, I slotted in some body twists while in lotus pose, to strengthen my back, neck and spine, as well as to burn off excess energy that causes the earlier wired up feel.

After about 10 mins, I felt I was ready to start my sun salutation sequence. I ensured that I spent a bit more time doing the forward bend, backward bend and downward dog pose. By the 2nd set of the series, my whole body felt light and my mind was begging for more. I completed 6 sets (didn't want to push my body after 1 week of absence), and I was sweating buckets. By the end of the session, I knew that my body is back in tune.. :-D

Next week, my normal exercise regime should resume, and hopefully my diet too. Working on my home made lunch menu for next week now.

Oh, Austin, our squirrel pet is back in action, after being absent for close to a month. He must hv gone off for holiday like us.. ;-)

I've learned a way to keep the house cool in the afternoon scorching sun. Under normal circumstances, I would open up all the windows, sliding windows, and doors to let the sunshine in and hopefully the wind. But in actual fact, when I do that, I'm also letting in all the heat. In fact, more heat than anything else. So, the best thing to do is to close up all the windows and doors (note - just windows, not the curtains so that you still get the sunshine), to keep the cool air in and the hot air out. Smart eh? Does everyone already know this or is it just me? Uhhh... nvm.